To be honest I burst into tears again when they were showing his interview on the news today. Absolutely heartbreaking. I'm sorry but how any Brit could have sat in centre court and cheered for Federer I just can't undertand. The roar when Federer took the 3rd set - just couldn't believe it. Just sickening.

I'm very interested in reading Mr Harman's piece on Murray, but I don't want to pay for it as I don't want to pay for anything that is unhelpful to Andy's cause. Can someone basically give me the gist of what his article was about and the main things he said?

Will give it a go tomorrow have the paper but left it at work. Pick it up and give you a summary unless anyone can do it b4 then.

From the intensely shy teenager to the rather less shy but intensely private young man, it has not been the easiest of assignments to bring you Andy Murray.For all the times I have been asked what the man is really like, it is difficult to state with certainty that I know him substantially better than those who make up their minds about him from a few glimpses on television, whether in triumph or, like yesterday, in tears.After eight years tracking Murray — being courtside at 11 of his 22 tournament victories and all of his grand-slam matches, the interviews in his hotel room, arranged meals, countless practice sessions and press conferences, hours charting every point, every grimace, every glorious backhand pass — he remains an enigma. I think we get along, but I cannot be totally certain.The first time I engaged with Murray was on a bus from Flushing Meadows back into Manhattan when he was playing in the US Open junior event in 2004 and I found myself sitting next to Jamie Baker, Murray’s fellow Scot, who happily engaged in conversation. Baker had — still has — an interest in writing and writers and pointed to Murray, who, from the initial handshake and grunt, it appeared, had neither.He won the junior title that year. I walked up to the roof of the Arthur Ashe Stadium where he had his picture taken with Judy, his mother, thinking that this lad was going to be on top of the world himself one day.I wanted to get to know him better, to build a mutual trust, but his agents preferred that he did not let his guard down. Finally, at the 2006 BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, California, Patricio Apey, his manager at the time, relented. I would be allowed to chat for half an hour in his hotel room, tape recorder turned off, keeping it relaxed and informal.Murray and Apey clambered into the back of my none-too-fancy hire car and Murray bollocked me for the easy-listening station to which the radio was tuned. We decamped to his room, the 19-year-old sprawled on his bed, and we chatted. Then he dived to his computer and asked why I had written certain articles (forget the idea that he does not follow what is said about him by certain fellows in the papers). This was a young man who knew his mind and wanted to know mine.If I was absent from his practice sessions, he would demand to know why. To him, it was an affront, so subsequently I have made certain that if he is practising and I am not required elsewhere, I watch as much as I can. Like Tim Henman before him, he will often either want, or need, to catch your eye when he is playing. It may come as a comfort, it may help, I am not sure, I have never asked him. It does not seem like something you would want to ask.In interviews, be it in private (very occasionally), or in a small group of British writers (after most matches), he is as good as there is. He has never ducked an inquiry (until we asked about the finger-pointing gesture at Wimbledon, to which he has become all coy), he is clever, funny, straight, engaging, and — yes — interesting.If he hears a word in a question that he does not appreciate, he will break from his regular monotone delivery and repeat it in incredulous tones to the questioner. He was asked once, as the suncream on his face began to drip into his eyes, whether he felt a bit of a mess. “Mess?” he responded.Don’t try to catch Murray out on tennis: you won’t. Don’t second-guess him because you will come off second best. He likes to speak for himself, rather than have anyone speak for him. He has not wanted his coaches to engage with the press, which, given the media-savvy nature of his coaches — Mark Petchey and Brad Gilbert especially — made for uncomfortable, fidgety silences. Murray has always wanted to be the master of his destiny.A couple of years ago, as a means of giving the British tennis writers their Wimbledon preview material, a table for 20 was booked at a pub, The Bull in Cobham, Surrey. Murray came, apparently relishing the conversation, gave us 20 minutes of quotes that fulfilled everyone’s desires, listened to our stories and — by all accounts — enjoyed himself. We have not done anything like that since.With Ivan Lendl as his coach, the atmosphere has changed. We are talking a different level of achievement and respect here. I can well understand why (so far) they have got on so well. Their sense of humour is similar, a teasing, slightly cynical means of making their point. You have to be ready to counter and woe betide you if you are slow on the uptake.This year, I wandered over to a table in the dining room that players and press share in Indian Wells and pulled up a chair next to Murray and Dani Vallverdu, his best friend. His opening line was a classic. “Neil, have you ever hacked a phone?” “Come on, Andy, be serious.” “But you must know how to do it, you work for them don’t you?” “Andy, did you really think I’d ever do anything like that?” I couldn’t tell whether he believed me or not. I still don’t.It was typical Andy. You are never really sure.Analysis: It’s always love-all on Centre CourtWhy is it nearly always the men who shout out “I love you” on Centre Court? The match had barely started when a booming voice that wouldn’t have been out of place in a colliery chorus declared his love for Roger Federer. The television camera focused on Rod Laver in the Royal Box, but surely it was not the Australian, four times the Wimbledon champion.Andy Murray had his own suitors, of course. Many a man, some wearing kilts, shouted out their love for the would-be national hero, but scarcely a woman for either side until eventually, two hours and 36 minutes in, one plucked up the guts to shout not only “I love you, Federer” but “Je t’aime, Federer”, just in case he hadn’t got the message.Not that the francophone vote all went to the Swiss. We definitely had an “Allez Andy” or two. There was a lot of love about.A lot of fun, too, and an awful lot of little Union Jacks on sticks. It had the feel of a Last Night of the Proms about it, thankfully without the person who always smuggles in a car horn to parp during the sea shanties.There were the obligatory wolf-whistles when Federer changed his shirt, the singing as the rain came down and the cheering for the roof. While the closing of the court played into Federer’s hands, the crowd was delighted. To go to Wimbledon and not see this new tradition would be like going to see Paul McCartney in concert and not hearing him perform Hey Jude.Plenty of celebrities had somehow wangled a ticket. There was Sir Cliff Richard wearing a suit that looked like a purple and green Union Jack, and there were Ben Ainslie and Sir Alex Ferguson two seats apart. Matt Smith, the star of Doctor Who, was also there, perhaps wishing he had taken the Tardis to 1936.For such a noisy, intimate venue, Centre Court can have the hush of a cathedral. It is then that someone normally thinks it funny to shout “Come on Tim”, although the first of those was held in for an hour. We also had a “Come on Rafa”. Yet again no one thought to shout “Come on Eileen”.Murray may have been on the canvas, but the noise as he came out to face serve for the last time was like a crowd at the Colosseum suddenly deciding to root for the Christians against the lions. When Federer lost the first point, there was an enormous ululation. “Andy, Andy, Andy” beat the rhythm, like the rain on the roof, but it was soon silenced. As Federer slumped to the floor, a lone voice rang out: “I still love you, Andy.” Male, of course.

What becomes of the broken-hearted? With time, they mend. Andy Murray did not quite know how to feel or what to do yesterday. “I might go to Miami, I might go somewhere in Europe on holiday,” he said.“I could just enjoy being at home, but the weather in this country is terrible — it’s been so bad — so I could probably do with getting some sun and having a bit of time away from the court.”Murray is in the process of contending with another of those periods in the immediate aftermath of a grand-slam final defeat encapsulated in his comment on Centre Court that “I’m getting closer”, which triggered an emotional flood the moment he said it.Roger Federer had been there, as a prickly youth — when he would take his frustrations out on his racket — to adulthood, when he was undone in the 2009 Australian Open final by a superlative effort from Rafael Nadal as the Swiss attempted to equal Peter Sampras’s 14 grand-slam tournament titles.Coerced into having to say something (should the loser really be forced to speak?), Federer’s knees buckled and his voice faltered. “I was exhausted in the first instance,” he recalled.“You think you can handle it and there’s 15,000 people feeling bad for you and the next thing you know, it’s so awkward. You would be happy just to stand there, hold the trophy, have pictures taken, sign autographs, but to have to speak, that’s the hard part. But I’m a believer that it’s good to get it out and I think Andy won the hearts of a lot of people with his reaction.“I know we put on the poker face when we play and we try hard and smash serves and balls, but when everything is said and done we do care about losing, about what the crowd thinks, our hearts are broken and I feel bad about Andy in a lot of ways.“But he has many years left and many opportunities will come if he has a good mental focus for the following year.”An improvement in Murray’s “mental focus” has been the core of Ivan Lendl’s work since their earliest days together. It was evident in Australia, went away in France and was restored, to telling effect, this past fortnight in SW19. The question of Murray’s readiness to win a grand-slam title was answered in all but the outcome on Sunday. The degree to which he deserves to win a grand-slam is irrelevant, despite almost every player and former champion saying that he does.Can Murray do it? Of course he can. The difference this year is that there have been fewer “poor soul me” moments, whingeing distractions and mental time-outs that rendered him less of a player, especially over the best-of-five-set marathons demanded in a grand slam. He has begun to do, in effect, what made Novak Djokovic such a mesmerising force through 2011 and early this year.The statistics back up the British No 1’s improvement. At Wimbledon, he served 90 aces in seven matches, second to Philipp Kohlschreiber, of Germany (hardly known for his demon serving), he topped the list on second-service return points won, was second (behind Federer) in most break points won and served only 18 double faults in seven matches. In any era, they would normally be tournament-winning percentages.It was always assumed that Murray’s best opportunity would come on hard courts, where he has won 19 of his 22 ATP World Tour titles, so it is easy to deduce that the US Open offers his best opportunity. His record in the grand-slams this year is a semi-final, a quarter-final and a final. He could be saving the best for last.Asked what Lendl had said to him in the aftermath of his defeat on Sunday, Murray revealed: “He just said: ‘Be proud of your efforts and the way you fought.’ That was it. I only saw him for one minute when I was inside the locker room.”Lendl was on his way home yesterday, plotting the next move. People said that there was no way Murray would win Wimbledon with a coach who had not done the same himself. Lendl reached eight consecutive US Open finals, winning three titles.

As the fascination in him grows — and the tears helped, no doubt about that — Andy Murray is going to become the battleground for an increasingly powerful struggle between the big sports management companies eager for his blessing.Had he become the first British male to win Wimbledon since 1936, the interest in the 25-year-old would have reached frenzied levels, but, as it is, he has an even greater wealth of support having reached the final and is seen as a defining catch.At the end of the year, his present contract with XIX Entertainment, which works in conjunction with CAA Sports, expires and the big boys are sniffing around. Simon Fuller, who owns XIX and is regarded as one of the world’s 100 most influential businessmen, was seated next to Judy Murray from the quarter-finals onwards. That smacks of a significant strategic offensive.In 2008, when the deal with the Murrays was signed, Fuller said: “I am very excited to be working with Andy and Jamie, two of the brightest British talents in global sports. XIX’s innovative partnership with CAA Sports will provide them with an unparalleled level of support.”The suggestion though, is that the support may not have been “unparalleled” enough for the Murrays’ liking and that IMG, for whom Roger Federer and Tony Godsick, his manager, did not re-sign last month in a blow to the company’s prestige, and Lagardère Unlimited, the new team on the tennis block, are keen to entice the family into their camps.Murray recently signed a £1 million deal to wear Rado watches — his girlfriend, Kim Sears, was pictured at Wimbledon yesterday with a rather decorative new watch — but it is believed in the marketing world that not enough has been done to encourage more leading companies to get involved with a player who was on almost every front page across the weekend and again yesterday morning.It is understood that IMG and Lagardère have made significant pitches to the Murrays in recent months and that XIX knows this and is concerned that it may soon lose its only tennis asset.When I wrote in May that IMG had made no secret of its interest in Murray, I was told in no uncertain terms that the story was “bull****”. After the Olympic Games, it is likely that the movement in the market will intensify. Andy Murray is increasingly very big business.

Not keen on Harman. He always retweets anyone that praises him. Don't like that. Also, his writing's not all that, in any case.

Ages ago I reported an article by Harman which was so snobby about Andy and going on about how he needed a shave as if that had anything at all to do with tennis. I dont think he is a genuine fan or friend.

I have to admit that based on the article posted above, it does seem Harmen is not exactly a friend. I got the impression, along with many others, that they were friends based on their regular Twitter interactions in the past.

I have to admit that based on the article posted above, it does seem Harmen is not exactly a friend. I got the impression, along with many others, that they were friends based on their regular Twitter interactions in the past.

Honestly Mark... I think you've been confusing 'journalism' with narcissism.Complete and utter nob.Wish I could post his pathetic Andy impression, but that would mean I'd have to put it out there on You Tube.. and I'd never do that to Andy because, sadly, that will give his haters some fodder to chow on.Shame...and Shameful.

I only disagree with the fact that he went away mentally at RG. I feel that he was mentally very strong. He had to contend with a bad back, Dr Wade's comments, the players comments and the French crowd against him, especially when playing Gasquet. Ferrer is perhaps, next to Nadal, the best clay court player and also Andy had a terrible draw once again. He has definitely grown up and his tiome will come.

Have personal anecdote: next door neighbour has been very ill so this year has watched Wimbledon non stop, which she wouldn't normally do..She now: loves Andy, hates Fed and is prepared to talk to me for hours and hours about Andy.Result